Events and subjective well-being: Only recent events matter: Erratum.

Reports an error in the original article by E. Suh et al (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1996 [May], Vol 70 [5], 1091–1102). On page 1097, the headings for the second and third columns of Tables 4 and 5 were incorrectly labeled R–2 and R–2 change. The headings should read R and R change, respectively. (The following abstract of this article originally appeared in record 1996-01753-014.) The effect of life events on subjective well-being (SWB) was explored in a 2-year longitudinal study of 115 participants. It was found that only life events during the previous 3 months influenced life satisfaction and positive and negative affect. Although recent life events influenced SWB even when personality at Time 1 was controlled, distal life events did not correlate with SWB. SWB and life events both showed a substantial degree of temporal stability. It was also found that good and bad life events tend to covary, both between individuals and across periods of the lives of individuals. Also, when events of the opposite valence were controlled, events correlated more strongly with SWB. The counterintuitive finding that good and bad events co-occur suggests an exciting avenue for explorations of the structure of life events. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Events and subjective well-being: Only recent events matter.

The effect of life events on subjective well-being (SWB) was explored in a 2-year longitudinal study of 1 15 participants. It was found that only life events during the previous 3 months influenced life satisfaction and positive and negative affect. Although recent life events influenced SWB even when personality at Time 1 was controlled, distal life events did not correlate with SWB. SWB and life events both showed a substantial degree of temporal stability. It was also found that good and bad life events tend to covary, both between individuals and across periods of the lives of individuals. Also, when events of the opposite valence were controlled, events correlated more strongly with SWB. The counterintuitive finding that good and bad events co-occur suggests an exciting avenue for explorations of the structure of life events. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality and happiness: A national-level analysis.

The possibility of national personality traits could explain national subjective well-being (SWB) is controversial, with many researchers arguing that traits are irrelevant to any national-level analysis. The weaknesses of this standpoint are reviewed, followed by a series of empirical investigations. Using Eysenck's 3-factor model (H. J. Eysenck & S. B. G. Eysenck, 1975) and P. T. Costa and R. M. McCrae's (1992b) 5-factor model, the authors found that Neuroticism and Extraversion correlated significantly with national SWB. Lie scale scores were also related strongly to national SWB. Neuroticism and Extraversion incrementally predicted SWB above gross national product per capita. The strength of these results indicated that personality can have stronger relationships at national levels of analysis than at the individual level. National personality traits appear to be unwisely neglected, having considerable but largely unconsidered explanatory power. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Extraversion and neuroticism as predictors of objective life events: A longitudinal analysis.

Used data from a 4-yr longitudinal study of young adults to examine the causal pathways between personality and life events. To reduce measurement artifacts, analyses were conducted using reports of more objective life events. It was found that extraversion predisposed participants to experience more positive objective life events, whereas neuroticism predisposed people to experience more negative objective events. In contrast, personality was somewhat stable, and life events were found not to have a prospective influence on it. Objective positive and negative life events covaried, suggesting that people who experience more of 1 type of event are also likely to experience more events of the opposite valence as well. The findings indicate that life events cannot be viewed as a source of influence independent of personality. Although factors that are independent of the person undoubtedly influence life events to some degree, the personality of the individual also appears to do so. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Culture, personality, and subjective well-being: Integrating process models of life satisfaction.

The authors examined the interplay of personality and cultural factors in the prediction of the affective (hedonic balance) and the cognitive (life satisfaction) components of subjective well-being (SWB). They predicted that the influence of personality on life satisfaction is mediated by hedonic balance and that the relation between hedonic balance and life satisfaction is moderated by culture. As a consequence, they predicted that the influence of personality on life satisfaction is also moderated by culture. Participants from 2 individualistic cultures (United States, Germany) and 3 collectivistic cultures (Japan, Mexico, Ghana) completed measures of Extraversion, Neuroticism, hedonic balance, and life satisfaction. As predicted, Extraversion and Neuroticism influenced hedonic balance to the same degree in all cultures, and hedonic balance was a stronger predictor of life satisfaction in individualistic than in collectivistic cultures. The influence of Extraversion and Neuroticism on life satisfaction was largely mediated by hedonic balance. The results suggest that the influence of personality on the emotional component of SWB is pancultural, whereas the influence of personality on the cognitive component of SWB is moderated by culture. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Resources, personal strivings, and subjective well-being: A nomothetic and idiographic approach.

The covariation of resources such as money, family support, social skills, and intelligence with subjective well-being (SWB) was assessed in 195 college students. Informant ratings provided an index of resources. Self-reports, daily experience sampling, and informant reports were used to measure SWB. The authors concluded that resources taken together are moderately strong predictors of SWB. This conclusion, however, was qualified by the fact that life satisfaction was more closely related to resources than was affective well-being and that social and personal resources were in general more strongly related to SWB than were material resources. The findings also supported the hypothesis that resources correlate more strongly with SWB when they are relevant to an individual's idiographic personal strivings. A tendency was found for people to choose personal strivings for which they have relevant resources, and the degree of congruence of individuals' goals with resources was predictive of SWB. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Optimizing well-being: The empirical encounter of two traditions.

Subjective well-being (SWB) is evaluation of life in terms of satisfaction and balance between positive and negative affect; psychological well-being (PWB) entails perception of engagement with existential challenges of life. The authors hypothesized that these research streams are conceptually related but empirically distinct and that combinations of them relate differentially to sociodemographics and personality. Data are from a national sample of 3,032 Americans aged 25-74. Factor analyses confirmed the related-but-distinct status of SWB and PWB. The probability of optimal well-being (high SWB and PWB) increased as age, education, extraversion, and conscientiousness increased and as neuroticism decreased. Compared with adults with higher SWB than PWB, adults with higher PWB than SWB were younger, had more education, and showed more openness to experience. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Refining the relationship between personality and subjective well-being.

Understanding subjective well-being (SWB) has historically been a core human endeavor and presently spans fields from management to mental health. Previous meta-analyses have indicated that personality traits are one of the best predictors. Still, these past results indicate only a moderate relationship, weaker than suggested by several lines of reasoning. This may be because of commensurability, where researchers have grouped together substantively disparate measures in their analyses. In this article, the authors review and address this problem directly, focusing on individual measures of personality (e.g., the Neuroticism-Extroversion-Openness Personality Inventory; P. T. Costa & R. R. McCrae, 1992) and categories of SWB (e.g., life satisfaction). In addition, the authors take a multivariate approach, assessing how much variance personality traits account for individually as well as together. Results indicate that different personality and SWB scales can be substantively different and that the relationship between the two is typically much larger (e.g., 4 times) than previous meta-analyses have indicated. Total SWB variance accounted for by personality can reach as high as 39% or 63% disattenuated. These results also speak to meta-analyses in general and the need to account for scale differences once a sufficient research base has been generated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Subjective well-being: Three decades of progress.

W. Wilson's (1967) review of the area of subjective well-being (SWB) advanced several conclusions regarding those who report high levels of "happiness." A number of his conclusions have been overturned: youth and modest aspirations no longer are seen as prerequisites of SWB. E. Diener's (1984) review placed greater emphasis on theories that stressed psychological factors. In the current article, the authors review current evidence for Wilson's conclusions and discuss modern theories of SWB that stress dispositional influences, adaptation, goals, and coping strategies. The next steps in the evolution of the field are to comprehend the interaction of psychological factors with life circumstances in producing SWB, to understand the causal pathways leading to happiness, understand the processes underlying adaptation to events, and develop theories that explain why certain variables differentially influence the different components of SWB (life satisfaction, pleasant affect, and unpleasant affect). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The happy personality: A meta-analysis of 137 personality traits and subjective well-being.

This meta-analysis used 9 literature search strategies to examine 137 distinct personality constructs as correlates of subjective well-being (SWB). Personality was found to be equally predictive of life satisfaction, happiness, and positive affect, but significantly less predictive of negative affect. The traits most closely associated with SWB were repressive-defensiveness, trust, emotional stability, locus of control-chance, desire for control, hardiness, positive affectivity, private collective self-esteem, and tension. When personality traits were grouped according to the Big Five factors, Neuroticism was the strongest predictor of life satisfaction, happiness, and negative affect. Positive affect was predicted equally well by Extraversion and Agreeableness. The relative importance of personality for predicting SWB, how personality might influence SWB, and limitations of the present review are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Integrating bottom-up and top-down theories of subjective well-being: The case of health.

As a means of integrating bottom-up and top-down theories of subjective well-being (SWB), a framework was proposed that, in part, posits that both objective life circumstances and global personality dimensions indirectly affect SWB through their effects on the interpretation of life circumstances. This proposition was tested both cross-sectionally and longitudinally among a sample of approximately 375 men and women. Personality was operationalized in terms of the dispositional trait negative affectivity (NA), and the life circumstance investigated was health. Strong support was obtained for the hypothesized indirect effects of NA and objective health on SWB. Implications of the integrative framework for the study of SWB are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Subjective well-being is heritable and genetically correlated with dominance in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).

The hypothesis that subjective well-being (SWB) is heritable and genetically correlated with Dominance was tested using 128 zoo chimpanzees. Dominance was a chimpanzee-specific personality factor including items reflecting Extraversion and low Neuroticism. SWB was measured with a 4-item scale. The best behavior genetic model included additive genetic and nonshared environmental effects for SWB and Dominance, marginal maternal effects for SWB, a high genetic correlation, and a low nonshared environmental correlation. Results indicated that the shared variance between SWB and Dominance was a consequence of common genes and that the unique variance between SWB and Dominance was a consequence of the nonshared environment. These findings indicate that common genes may underlie the correlation between human personality factors and SWB. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stability and change of personality across the life course: The impact of age and major life events on mean-level and rank-order stability of the Big Five.

Does personality change across the entire life course, and are those changes due to intrinsic maturation or major life experiences? This longitudinal study investigated changes in the mean levels and rank order of the Big Five personality traits in a heterogeneous sample of 14,718 Germans across all of adulthood. Latent change and latent moderated regression models provided 4 main findings: First, age had a complex curvilinear influence on mean levels of personality. Second, the rank-order stability of Emotional Stability, Extraversion, Openness, and Agreeableness all followed an inverted U-shaped function, reaching a peak between the ages of 40 and 60 and decreasing afterward, whereas Conscientiousness showed a continuously increasing rank-order stability across adulthood. Third, personality predicted the occurrence of several objective major life events (selection effects) and changed in reaction to experiencing these events (socialization effects), suggesting that personality can change due to factors other than intrinsic maturation. Fourth, when events were clustered according to their valence, as is commonly done, effects of the environment on changes in personality were either overlooked or overgeneralized. In sum, our analyses show that personality changes throughout the life span, but with more pronounced changes in young and old ages, and that this change is partly attributable to social demands and experiences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Can personality explain genetic influences on life events?

Previous research in the Swedish Adoption/Twin Study of Aging (SATSA) has found genetic influences on life events (R. Plomin et al, see record 1990-14029-001). The present study extends this finding by examining sex differences in genetic and environmental contributions to life events and by examining personality as a mediator of genetic influences on life events in SATSA. Analyses were based on 320 twin pairs, including identical and fraternal twins reared together and apart (mean age 58.6 yrs). Controllable, desirable, and undesirable life events revealed significant genetic variance only for women. There was no significant genetic variance for either sex for uncontrollable events. Multivariate analysis of personality (as indexed by Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Openness to Experience) and life events suggest that all of the genetic variance on controllable, desirable, and undesirable life events for women is common to personality. Thus, in this sample of older adult women, genetic influences on life events appear to be entirely mediated by personality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Integrating top-down and bottom-up structural models of subjective well-being: A longitudinal investigation.

Although there have been many recent advances in the literature on subjective well-being (SWB), the field historically has suffered from 2 shortcomings: little theoretical progress and lack of quasi-experimental or longitudinal design (E. Diener, 1984). Causal influences therefore have been difficult to determine. After collecting data over 4 time periods with 160 Ss, the authors compared how well 2 alternative models of SWB (bottom-up and top-down models) fit the data. Variables of interest in both models were physical health, daily hassles, world assumptions, and constructive thinking. Results showed that both models provided good fit to the data, with neither model providing a closer fit than the other, which suggests that the field would benefit from devoting more time to examining how general dispositions toward happiness color perceptions of life's experiences. Results implicate bidirectional causal models of SWB and its personality and situational influences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Eudaimonic growth: Narrative growth goals predict increases in ego development and subjective well-being 3 years later.

We examine (a) the normative course of eudaimonic well-being in emerging adulthood and (b) whether people's narratives of major life goals might prospectively predict eudaimonic growth 3 years later. We define eudaimonic growth as longitudinal increases in eudaimonic well-being, which we define as the combination of psychosocial maturity and subjective well-being (SWB). College freshmen and seniors took measures of ego development (ED; to assess maturity; Loevinger, 1976) and SWB at Time 1 (T1) and again 3 years later (Time 2). ED levels increased longitudinally across that time for men and T1 freshmen, but SWB levels did not change. Participants also wrote narratives of 2 major life goals at T1 that were coded for an explicit emphasis on specific kinds of personal growth. Participants' intellectual-growth goals (especially agentic ones) predicted increases in ED 3 years later, whereas participants' socioemotional-growth goals (especially communal ones) predicted increases in SWB 3 years later. These findings were independent of the effects of Big Five personality traits—notably conscientiousness, which on its own predicted increases in SWB. We discuss (a) emerging adulthood as the last stop for normative eudaimonic growth in modern society and (b) empirical and theoretical issues surrounding the relations among narrative identity, life planning, dispositional traits, eudaimonia, and 2 paths of personal growth. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Life Satisfaction Set Point: Stability and Change.

Using data from 17 years of a large and nationally representative panel study from Germany, the authors examined whether there is a set point for life satisfaction (LS)--stability across time, even though it can be perturbed for short periods by life events. The authors found that 24% of respondents changed significantly in LS from the first 5 years to the last 5 years and that stability declined as the period between measurements increased. Average LS in the first 5 years correlated .51 with the 5-year average of LS during the last 5 years. Height, weight, body mass index, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and personality traits were all more stable than LS, whereas income was about as stable as LS. Almost 9% of the sample changed an average of 3 or more points on a 10-point scale from the first 5 to last 5 years of the study. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Looking back and looking ahead: Adult age differences in consistency of diachronous ratings of subjective well-being.

The goal of this study is to investigate the consistency of diachronous ratings of subjective well-being (SWB). A heterogeneous sample (25-74-year-olds; N=3,596) provided ratings of their present SWB, reconstructed their SWB of 10 years ago, and anticipated their SWB 10 years from now. Developmental tasks and self-evaluative principles were used to predict age differences in diachronous consistency. As predicted, in young adulthood, past SWB was rated lower and future SWB higher than present SWB. In contrast, in later adulthood, the past was rated higher and the future lower than present SWB. Analyses of rank-order consistency demonstrated that in later adulthood both future and past SWB were more strongly related to present SWB than in young adulthood. Results show how models of self-evaluation play out at different points in the life span. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Memory for positive versus negative life events: Theories for the differences between happy and unhappy persons.

Three studies examined the following hypotheses for the relation of subjective well-being (SWB) with memory for positive versus negative life events: (1) differences in retrieval mood, (2) the incidence of positive and negative events, (3) the interpretation of events, and (4) frequency of rehearsal. In Studies 1 (n?=?420) and 2 (n?=?94), the partial correlation of retrieval mood with recall, controlling for SWB, was trivial, suggesting that mood had little or no effect on recall. Endorsement frequencies of positive minus negative concrete events and interpretive events on checklists in Studies 2 and 3 each correlated with SWB (ps?